Wild Sarsaparilla Flowers

At the dairy, the cows lie in stalls of sand. When they are in the holding pen waiting to be milked, Mike cleans their stalls and smooths the sand. Some of that sand inevitably makes it into the parlor and I noticed while I was rinsing down that the sand was a different color (think blond vs. brunette). I asked the herdsman why the sand looked different. She said we are now using rejected frac sand from the new local processing plant. The sand which doesn't measure up to the standard required for oil drilling is sold for other uses - like cow bedding. "The cows," the herdsman said, "really like it because it's almost fluffy." I asked Mike how he liked working w/ it. "When it's dry, it's very dusty." he replied. I thought about all that and then realized the new sand might also be having another effect. All of the milk from the parlor goes through a sock filter before reaching the tanks. I replace the filter after each milking and had been pretty proud of the fact that its been looking practically pristine lately - even after milking 300 cows. Checked the filter closer today and there they were - little blond sand particles almost invisible against the white fabric filter. Not terrible. Just not as clean as I had hoped.